Drawing the Lewis Structure for F2

Viewing Notes:

  • F2 is a reddish gas at room temperature.
  • The F2 Lewis structure is similar to Br2, Cl2, and I2 since F, Br, Cl, and I are all in Group 7 and have 7 valence electrons.
  • For the F2 Lewis structure there are a total of 14 valence electrons available.


Transcript: OK, this is Dr. B. We're going to do the Lewis structure for F2, Fluorine gas: a yellow, extremely reactive gas. And we'll start looking on the periodic table. Fluorine is in group 7, or, sometimes called 17, and that means that it will have 7 valence electrons. But we have 2 Fluorine atoms, so we need to multiply that by 2, and that gives us a total of 14 valence electrons. Let's draw the two Fluorines next to each other. And we have 14 valence electrons to bond and then spread around and try to satisfy the octets, or give each Fluorine 8 valence electrons. We'll put these two here. That pair bonds them together.

And so we've used 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14. We've used all our valence electrons up, and let's see if we have octets. Two, 4, 6, 8; that Fluorine has 8. And over here, 2, 4, 6, 8; that Fluorine has 8, as well. So we're actually done with the dot structure for F2. We could write it, though, like a structural formula, and that would look like this right here where this bond is represented by a single line. So that single line is a pair of electrons bonding the two F's together. And then the rest of the electrons are valence electrons around the Fluorine atom.

This is Dr. B., and thanks for watching.